


Her Own Reality

by TheNerdVoice



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Flashbacks, Gen, Implied Love, Implied Relationship, Mental Hospital, self inflicted wounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22997416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNerdVoice/pseuds/TheNerdVoice
Summary: It's been mentioned multiple times that Sarah Jane Smith worked for UNIT in the past. However, maybe most of her work with UNIT wasn't with the Doctor after all, as we have all assumed.Harry Sullivan offers an old friend a job.
Relationships: Fourth Doctor/Sarah Jane Smith
Kudos: 5





	Her Own Reality

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago and it's just been hanging out on my Google Drive (for like...3 or 4 years now). I thought it was going to be a series that I was going to do that was going to include the Eighth Doctor among others, but I realized that, no matter what I did, I just wasn't...familiar enough with the Eighth Doctor to do him justice. At least not as familiar as I like to be with a character to write them.
> 
> So, I decided to just post this as a one off. Hope you all enjoy.
> 
> ALSO, names mentioned for Sarah Jane's editors and family are actually canon, believe it or not.   
> Africana is a weird name for anyone, I wouldn't have come up with that myself.

Blink. Blink. Blink. Staring at the padded ceiling of an isolated room, patient 880715 attempts to sort through the thoughts of her life. The thoughts she knows couldn’t possibly be false. The thoughts that those around her condemn her for.

_ “Sarah Jane, your article was about a man who flies around the universe in a time machine that appears to look like a police box from the sixties. You tell me that you’ve seen, and I quote, ‘humble green beings with a singular eye and have the general appearance of a bobble headed toy’. How do you honestly expect me to believe that these aren’t mere children’s stories?”  _

_ “His name was Alpha Centauri.” Sarah Jane Smith mumbled. She never usually felt meek or inferior. “He was very nice. A part of the Alpha Centauren delegation to the planet Peladon. The men worked in caves and had hair like the coat of a badger.” _

_ “Listen to yourself. I mean, honestly, Sarah, put yourself in my shoes.” Lionel sighed, “I know we worked together on many stories and I’m new at this position, but I’m not as lenient as Clorinda. She’d let the occasional story slide on through, but...I’m not her.” _

_ “I’m aware.” She folded her arms, “Lionel, is there a reason you called me into your office today?” _

_ “You’re an amazing writer, Sarah Jane Smith. One of the most amazing writers of our time. I’m constantly in awe of your brazen storylines when they aren’t this...these stories. Write a children’s book, Sarah Jane. You can’t bring them here.” He shook his head slowly, “Sarah Jane, it’s with a heavy heart that I tell you this. The powers that be don’t believe your submissions to Metropolitan are...substantial to keep you on as a regular contributor. You’re gone for weeks, months at a time. Your submissions that we are actually able to use come far and few between.” _

_ “Are you firing me?” Her voice wavered ever so slightly, something he could see. Something that made him want to take her into his arms. “Right now, here in this office that still has Clorinda’s artwork on the wall, are you firing me?” _

_ “No. However, we’d like it if you put in for a leave. Take a few months sabbatical. Collect your thoughts, explore the world.” Lionel offered her a sad smile, “Come back when you’re ready. I don’t want to release you from this position, Sarah Jane. I don’t want to be that man. This is the only thing I can offer as an option.” _

“I’m not imagining these things.” She whispers to herself, “They’re real...as real as my reflection.” The young woman sits up in the bed, edging herself up to lean against the headboard. She always wanted to investigate a place like this. Always wanted to write a journalistic story on a mental institution. Like the American reporter Nellie Bly. Well, this place was nothing like what she had experienced. Journalists were the reason the entire experience changed for patients in mental hospitals around the world. “Use it as an experience.” She tells herself, glancing over when she hears someone opening the door.

A physician steps through with a couple nurses at his side. She quickly realizes she knows this man. She knows him all too well, but she attempts to keep an unenthusiastic look to her face when he waves the nurses off. “Well...Sarah Jane Smith...as I live and breathe.”

Sarah Jane can feel her eyes begin to water, biting her lip, “If I knew there weren’t cameras on me, I’d jump up and embrace you, Harry.”

“Oh, please don’t cry, old girl. I’m here to help you get out of this mess.” Harry Sullivan offers a wide grin, “Crikey, it’s been...a long time, hasn’t it?”

She hums, nodding, “Yeah...it’s a lonely place without the Doctor...or someone else on my side that believes me.”

“You haven’t completely thought this through, have you...” It wasn’t a question. He rounds the bed to sit on the side, “You’re in a padded cell, not because we thought you’d like the scenery better, no. You’re in a padded cell because staff believes that you could be of harm to yourself.”

“Oh? What did I do that gave them such an idea?” Sarah Jane runs her hand through her hair.

“Do you not remember?” When he receives a blank look from her, he continues, “Your Aunt Lavinia found you in the bath with self-inflicted wounds to your wrists about a week ago. You attempted suicide, old girl.”

She clears her throat, shaking her head, “I...I don’t remember.”

“She feared for your life. Once you were cleaned up in hospital, they transported you here at her urging. She told hospital staff of your stories and signed a document that essentially says you are unable to leave here until you are either cured or she returns to sign you back out.”

“That...How could she-”

“She was terrified. You’re all she has in her life. Closest thing to a daughter and the only remaining scrap of her dear brother. Don’t you understand?” Harry nods, “I understand the memory loss. Traumatic events can trigger defense mechanisms in the brain to make us forget them...I remember your mind being taken over other times as well though.” The man waves his eyebrows with a soft smile to her.

“Right.” Sarah Jane answers with a huffing laugh, “You’re enabling me...the thoughts.”

“The thoughts are true. They aren’t thoughts, they’re memories.” He rises from the bed, “You just need to...find a way to contain them during your day to day life.”

“How do we take the experiences, Harry, how do we take them and fit them into life without making them into an anecdote? Oh, that reminds me of the time I was hypnotized by a sontaran, which looks like a giant potato; he thought it would be hilarious if I experienced my greatest fears. Did you hear the one about that?” She mocks herself, shaking her head, “This is my life, Harry. He was my life.”

“And he left you.” The man shakes his head slowly, “Am I right? That’s what your file says.”

Sarah Jane watches the man closely, her eyes filling with tears that she chooses to ignore, “Why are you even here, Harry? You’re a doctor for UNIT, not a psychiatrist.”

“No, that’s true. The Brigadier sent me.”

“The Brig?”

“Once your name was in the files of this hospital with the story that you gave them, UNIT was alerted by one of our operatives...that needn't be named.” Harry smirks, “We have agents everywhere, including at least one at every hospital. Plus, we send our people here for their evaluations and for treatment. There’s more than one guy sitting around to spot your application.”

“So, all of UNIT knows I’m in a mental institution.” Her eyebrows rise as she brings her hand up to wipe the extra wetness from her eyes.

“Yeah, but we also know that you shouldn’t be.” He offers her a soft smile, “Come work for UNIT for a while and get things in order. Maybe a more...military lifestyle will help you.”

“I’m a journalist. Not a soldier.”

“That isn’t what I mean.” 

Sarah Jane pulls her knees closer to her chest, “Aunt Lavinia brought me here.” She attempts to rationalize and sort things in her head.

“Yes.” Harry nods, moving closer to her, “Sarah, you’re the most honest and loving person I know. I know you shouldn’t be here, but we have to...come to terms with why you did what you did before you can leave.”

“Do you know what it’s like to tell someone exactly where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing in the time between they’ve seen you and they do nothing except think you’re radio rental?” She offers a sad smile, “Uncle Africana, Aunt Lavinia...my editor...friends, cousins...” She huffs a soft chuckle, “There’s no one to talk to about the things I’ve seen...the things I’ve experienced.”

“That’s not true.” The man stands up, smiling softly to her as he walks toward the door, “I was there with you for quite a while. I saw what you saw. I experienced what you experienced. Yes, you were traveling with the man long before I met you and did so long after I left, but there isn’t anything you could tell me that I simply will not believe.”

“Promise me.” Sarah Jane’s voice could barely be heard, but to Harry, it is loud and clear. Pulling her arms tighter around herself when she notices him nod before exiting. Maybe, just maybe, this would be her opportunity to show everyone that she’s actually healthy. So healthy that they want her to work for the government. Yes, she knows this experience will be one to prove all of her doubters wrong.


End file.
